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An ESS Inc battery.
Photo courtesy ESS Inc

ESS is trying to solve a critical problem with renewable energy: How to store energy from wind and solar installations when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.

The company’s proposed solution is a long-duration energy storage batteries made of iron, salt and water, which are much cheaper and more readily available than the elements used in batteries today, like lithium and cobalt. Its early momentum attracted $57 million in investments from powerful backers like Bill Gates and Softbank, CEO Eric Dresselhuys told CNBC.

On Monday, it hits another milestone, going public via SPAC to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday under the ticker symbol GWH. It hopes to raise $308 million through the deal.

“There have been very few solutions for this long duration up until now, and it’s largely driven from the fact that we didn’t rely on energy storage as a major solution for hardening the system,” said Dresselhuys, who became the CEO of ESS this year after decades of energy and technology executive experience.

The company launched in the garage of co-founders Craig Evans and Julia Song in Portland, Ore., in 2011 (they’re a married couple, in addition to being business partners), then moved to the Portland State Business Accelerator before expanding to its current 200,000-square-foot headquarters.

The company is backed by Bill Gates’ clean energy investment firm Breakthrough Energy Ventures, SB Energy (a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank) and multinational chemical company BASF, among other investors. The SPAC comes through a reverse merger with ACON S2 Acquisition Corp., run out of private equity firm Acon Investments.

ESS has not recorded any revenue yet, according to financial filings dated Sept. 8, but Dresselhuys says it has shipped product to customers, including TerraSol Energies in Pennsylvania and Siemens-Gamesa in Denmark; investor documents claim several other unnamed utilities as customers also. Also, ESS has orders in the pipeline from SB Energy and Enel Green Power España.

The company lost $245.3 million in the first six months of 2021, but only $18.4 million were operating losses (the remainder was due to losses on reevaluations of warrant and derivative liabilities). Operating losses were $17.4 million for 2021, and it expects to record its first profit in 2023.

Iron, salt and water: Safe, readily available materials

The big breakthrough for ESS is a long-duration battery built from readily available materials, explained Carmichael Roberts, a co-chair of the investment committee at Breakthrough Energy Ventures In a battery, the electrolyte is the liquid medium that connects the two ends of a battery, the anode and the cathode.

“The flow battery is cheaper, safer and has better operational life than conventional lithium-ion storage,” Roberts said.

Making a battery out of iron, salt and water means “there’s no toxicity, the technology we build doesn’t start fires or doesn’t blow up in fire,” said Dresselhuys.

Also, ESS batteries do not have lithium or cobalt, two common elements in batteries that are being impacted by supply chain crunches.

“Both are in potentially short supply globally and none are produced in the U.S.,” said Jesse Jenkins, an assistant professor at Princeton University who specializes in the energy grid.

“Lithium is less of an issue in the long run, as long as we recycle lithium ion batteries, but there may be some short-run price increases as production ramps up to match battery demand for EVs,” Jenkins said.

“Cobalt is a bit trickier and has come under fire for some of the supply chain relying on quote unquote ‘artisanal mines’ in Africa, which employ forced labor, and child labor in some cases, with people digging out cobalt by hand and very, very harsh conditions,” Jenkins said.

Neither does ESS use vanadium, a chemical element used in some flow battery technology. While promising, Dresselhuys says it’s too expensive to be meaningful.

“It’s one thing to make something work, and that can be very difficult. But it has to work cost effectively to be viable as a system because of the scale we’re talking about,” he said.

How the battery works: ‘The elegance is the simplicity’

Visualize a sandwich, said ESS’s business development lead, Hugh McDermott. The ESS battery technology is a stack of carbon plates with salt water with iron flowing through each layer.

Iron comes out of the salt water solution and sticks to one side of the plates. When the polarity of the plates is changed, the iron dissolves back into the water solution.

From a battery management control system, the flow of the ions can be switched, thereby also switching the flow of electricity onto and off the grid.

ESS Inc’s iron flow battery “stack.”
Image courtesy ESS Inc.

The idea of a iron flow battery has been around since the 1970s, Dresselhuys said. But there were technical issues that scientists hadn’t solved.

For example, early iterations of the iron flow battery technology would work for a while, but the electrolyte fluid would become imbalanced, build up on the battery, and the battery would become ineffective over time. To fix this, ESS developed a proton pump, which Dresselhuys says “allows the system to keep itself in balance throughout all of those charges and discharges so that the electrolyte is entirely clean.”

Early research was funded in part by almost $3 million dollars in grant funding from the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program, as well as individuals and local investment funds.

“The elegance is the simplicity,” said Rich Hossfeld, co-CEO at SB Energy and a board member at ESS. (SB Energy is not only an investor, but also a customer.)

But it took a lot of research and development to get a simple solution to work. ESS has been working on research and development for a decade. The proton pump was a really key breakthrough for the company, but one of many.

“There’s a very large intellectual property moat around the core technology and that will make it very difficult for other competitors to build a battery that is similar to ESS’ battery,” Hossfeld told CNBC.

An ESS Inc battery
Photo courtesy ESS Inc

Another long duration battery being developed by Form Energy also uses iron and also is backed by Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Form, however, is developing iron-air batteries, which uses different technology and aims to provide energy storage for multiple days.

ESS batteries can store energy for 4 to 12 hours, whereas the lithium batteries in cars are typically capped between two and four hours, Dresselhuys said.

To go above four hours of energy storage with lithium-ion batteries requires increasing the number of lithium-ion cells, Hossfeld told CNBC. ESS, on the other hand, can just add more water, iron and salt to a bigger tank of its stack-sandwiches.

“The way to think about ESS cost-wise is they are cost parity with lithium ion at four hours, and about half the cost above that, which we think creates a big advantage for them,” Hossfeld told CNBC.

Another key to the ESS iron-flow technology is its resilience.

“Capacity stays the same between year one and year 20,” Hossfeld said. Anyone who has a cellphone knows that is not the case for lithium-ion batteries. “You open it up, it comes out of the case, right now it will give you 10 hours. We all know it doesn’t give you 10 hours in a year, right?”

Energy centers are co-located with a wind or solar farm, allowing the batteries to charge up during the day when the sun is shining and then discharge in the late afternoon when there is typically a bump in energy demand.

SB Energy’s first installation of ESS Inc batteries in Davis, Calif. SB Energy is an investor in ESS and also a customer. These are batteries SB Energy purchased.
Photo courtesy SB Energy

Similarly with wind. “You can store four, eight, 10 hours of wind plants in the middle of the night and then discharge it during the day as needed,” Hossfeld told CNBC. “We look at ESS as a really good complement to that daily cycling between wind and solar.”

The Energy Warehouse, the only ESS product that exists so far, is the size of a shipping container, 40 feet long and 8 feet wide.

“That container holds 500 kilowatt hours of energy. That’s roughly the energy that you would need to power 20 to 30 homes, depending on where you are in the country,” McDermott told CNBC.

Four ESS Inc batteries
photo courtesy ESS Inc

ESS is also building a product called Energy Centers intended for utilities and independent power producers — for instance, businesses that own large solar farms who then sell that power to the grid.

For these kinds of larger customers, ESS will use similar battery technology, but the battery modules will be contained together in a building. Customer trials are expected to begin in 2022.

The big challenge: Getting an iron flow battery to scale

While iron-based batteries are a well-known technology, the big challenge has been getting them to scale.

“Iron based chemistries for flow batteries have a long and storied history, rightfully so because in theory they have some of the lowest theoretical costs possible. On paper these systems scale quite well,” explained Dan Steingart, Associate Professor of Chemical Metallurgy at Columbia University

But the reality has been quite different.

“We have not seen widespread adoption of this class of batteries and its cousins because of last-mile engineering challenges that have in the past added unacceptable capital and operating costs when compared to other available technologies,” Steingart told CNBC.

Flow batteries depend on pumps and membranes that are highly technical. “Think a kidney, writ very large, working 10,000 times harder than it has to, all the time,” he said. “It has been very difficult to have these, in practice, operate in a reliable manner without significant ancillary systems (that make the system more expensive upfront) or maintenance calls (which increase running costs).”‘

That said, Steingart notes the “sufficient capital” ESS has raised to validate its solutions to these challenges.

Also, ESS in September secured a 10-year battery warranty backed by the insurance giant Munich Re, which “is a strong signal of a positive outcome,” Steingart told CNBC.

Cost is another conern.

“The iron flow battery technology looks very promising as it is safe, environmentally friendly, uses non-toxic materials that can be sourced in the US, and doesn’t degrade over time and over multiple cycles,” Jan Pepper, the CEO of Peninsula Clean Energy, told CNBC.

Peninsula Clean Energy, a community energy buyer and the official power provider for San Mateo County in Calif., has not worked with ESS directly, but it’s trying to deliver cost-competitive 100% renewable energy on a 24/7 basis by 2025. Pepper knows that energy storage will help meet those goals.

“The current challenge with iron flow batteries is the cost,” Pepper said. “If companies like ESS can bring the cost down for their technology, then they and others will be able to make a meaningful impact in decarbonization efforts and help organizations like Peninsula Clean Energy meet our ambitious goals.” 

As Steingart told CNBC, “A goal I use is in my lab for long duration energy storage: The battery has to cost about the same price as dog food per pound and last forever with little intervention.”

That said, if ESS can do what its investors think it can, “the successful execution of this chemistry would be a significant milestone for grid scale energy storage,” Steingart told CNBC.

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Tesla launches new software update with Grok, but it doesnt even interface with the car

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Tesla launches new software update with Grok, but it doesnt even interface with the car

Tesla has launched a new software update for its vehicles that includes the anticipated integration of Grok, but it doesnt even interface with the car yet.

Earlier this week, CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla would integrate Grok, the large language model developed by his private company, xAI, into its vehicles.

Today, Tesla started pushing the update to the fleet, but there’s a significant caveat.

The automaker wrote in the release notes (2025.26):

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Grok (Beta) (US, AMD)

Grok now available directly in your Tesla

Requires Premium Connectivity or a WiFi connection

Grok is currently in Beta & does not issue commands to your car – existing voice commands remain unchanged.

First off, it is only available in vehicles in the US equipped with the AMD infotainment computer, which means cars produced since mid-2021.

But more importantly, Tesla says that it doesn’t send commands to the car under the current version. Therefore, it is simply like having Grok on your phone, but on the onboard computer instead.

Tesla showed an example:

There are a few other features in the 2025.26 software update, but they are not major.

For Tesla vehicles equipped with ambient lighting strips inside the car, the light strip can now sync to music:

Accent lights now respond to music & you can also choose to match the lights to the album’s color for a more immersive effect

Toybox > Light Sync

Here’s the new setting:

The audio setting can now be saved under multiple presets to match listening preferences for different people or circumstances:

The software update also includes the capacity to zoom or adjust the playback speed of the Dashcam Viewer.

Cybertruck also gets the updated Dashcam Viewer app with a grid view for easier access and review of recordings:

Tesla also updated the charging info in its navigation system to be able to search which locations require valet service or pay-to-park access.

Upon arrival, drivers will receive a notification with access codes, parking restrictions, level or floor information, and restroom availability:

Finally, there’s a new onboarding guide directly on the center display to help people who are experiencing a Tesla vehicle for the first time.

Electrek’s Take

Tesla is really playing catch-up here. Right now, this update is essentially nothing. If you already have Grok, it’s no more different than having it on your phone or through the vehicle’s browser, since it has no capacity to interact with any function inside the vehicle.

Most other automakers are integrating LLMs inside vehicles with the capacity to interact with the vehicle. In China, this is becoming standard even in entry-level cars.

In the Xiaomi YU7, the vehicle’s AI can not only interact with the car, but it also sees what the car sees through its camera, and it can tell you about what it sees:

Tesla is clearly far behind on that front as many automakers are integrating with other LLMs like ChatGPT and in-house LLMs, like Xiaomi’s.

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Robinhood is up 160% this year, but several obstacles are ahead

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Robinhood is up 160% this year, but several obstacles are ahead

Florida AG opens probe into Robinhood. Here's the latest

Robinhood stock hit an all-time high Friday as the financial services platform continued to rip higher this year, along with bitcoin and other crypto stocks.

Robinhood, up more than 160% in 2025, hit an intraday high above $101 before pulling back and closing slightly lower.

The reversal came after a Bloomberg report that JPMorgan plans to start charging fintechs for access to customer bank data, a move that could raise costs across the industry.

For fintech firms that rely on thin margins to offer free or low-cost services to customers, even slight disruptions to their cost structure can have major ripple effects. PayPal and Affirm both ended the day nearly 6% lower following the report.

Despite its stellar year, the online broker is facing several headwinds, with a regulatory probe in Florida, pushback over new staking fees and growing friction with one of the world’s most high-profile artificial intelligence companies.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier opened a formal investigation into Robinhood Crypto on Thursday, alleging the platform misled users by claiming to offer the lowest-cost crypto trading.

“Robinhood has long claimed to be the best bargain, but we believe those representations were deceptive,” Uthmeier said in a statement.

The probe centers on Robinhood’s use of payment for order flow — a common practice where market makers pay to execute trades — which the AG said can result in worse pricing for customers.

Robinhood Crypto General Counsel Lucas Moskowitz told CNBC its disclosures are “best-in-class” and that it delivers the lowest average cost.

“We disclose pricing information to customers during the lifecycle of a trade that clearly outlines the spread or the fees associated with the transaction, and the revenue Robinhood receives,” added Moskowitz.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev explains 'dual purpose' behind trading platform's new crypto offerings

Robinhood is also facing opposition to a new 25% cut of staking rewards for U.S. users, set to begin October 1. In Europe, the platform will take a smaller 15% cut.

Staking allows crypto holders to earn yield by locking up their tokens to help secure blockchain networks like ethereum, but platforms often take a percentage of those rewards as commission.

Robinhood’s 25% cut puts it in line with Coinbase, which charges between 25.25% and 35% depending on the token. The cut is notably higher than Gemini’s flat 15% fee.

It marks a shift for the company, which had previously steered clear of staking amid regulatory uncertainty.

Under President Joe Biden‘s administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission cracked down on U.S. platforms offering staking services, arguing they constituted unregistered securities.

With President Donald Trump in the White House, the agency has reversed course on several crypto enforcement actions, dropping cases against major players like Coinbase and Binance and signaling a more permissive stance.

Even as enforcement actions ease, Robinhood is under fresh scrutiny for its tokenized stock push, which is a growing part of its international strategy.

The company now offers blockchain-based assets in Europe that give users synthetic exposure to private firms like OpenAI and SpaceX through special purpose vehicles, or SPVs.

An SPV is a separate entity that acquires shares in a company. Users then buy tokens of the SPV and don’t have shareholder privileges or voting rights directly in the company.

OpenAI has publicly objected, warning the tokens do not represent real equity and were issued without its approval. In an interview with CNBC International, CEO Vlad Tenev acknowledged the tokens aren’t technically equity shares, but said that misses the broader point.

JPMorgan announces plans to charge for access to customer bank data

“What’s important is that retail customers have an opportunity to get exposure to this asset,” he said, pointing to the disruptive nature of AI and the historically limited access to pre-IPO companies.

“It is true that these are not technically equity,” Tenev added, noting that institutional investors often gain similar exposure through structured financial instruments.

The Bank of Lithuania — Robinhood’s lead regulator in the EU — told CNBC on Monday that it is “awaiting clarifications” following OpenAI’s statement.

“Only after receiving and evaluating this information will we be able to assess the legality and compliance of these specific instruments,” a spokesperson said, adding that information for investors must be “clear, fair, and non-misleading.”

Tenev responded that Robinhood is “happy to continue to answer questions from our regulators,” and said the company built its tokenized stock program to withstand scrutiny.

“Since this is a new thing, regulators are going to want to look at it,” he said. “And we expect to be scrutinized as a large, innovative player in this space.”

SEC Chair Paul Atkins recently called the model “an innovation” on CNBC’s Squawk Box, offering some validation as Robinhood leans further into its synthetic equity strategy — even as legal clarity remains in flux across jurisdictions.

Despite the regulatory noise, many investors remain focused on Robinhood’s upside, and particularly the political tailwinds.

The company is positioning itself as a key beneficiary of Trump’s newly signed megabill, which includes $1,000 government-seeded investment accounts for newborns. Robinhood said it’s already prototyping an app for the ‘Trump Accounts‘ initiative.

WATCH: Watch CNBC’s full interview with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev

Watch CNBC's full interview with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev

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Hyundai and Kia are betting on lower-priced EVs to ride out tariffs

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Hyundai and Kia are betting on lower-priced EVs to ride out tariffs

Korean auto giants Hyundai and Kia think lower-priced EVs will help minimize the blow from the new US auto tariffs. Hyundai is set to unveil a new entry-level electric car soon, which will be sold alongside the Kia EV2. Will it be the IONIQ 2?

Hyundai and Kia shift to lower-priced EVs

Hyundai and Kia already offer some of the most affordable and efficient electric vehicles on the market, with models like the IONIQ 5 and EV6.

In Europe, Korea, Japan, and other overseas markets, Hyundai sells the Inster EV (sold as the Casper Electric in Korea), an electric city car. The Inster EV starts at about $27,000 (€23,900), but Hyundai will soon offer another lower-priced EV, similar to the upcoming Kia EV2.

The Inster EV is seeing strong initial demand in Europe and Japan. According to a local report (via Newsis), demand for the Casper Electric is so high that buyers are waiting over a year for delivery.

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Hyundai is doubling down with plans to introduce an even more affordable EV, rumored to be the IONIQ 2. Xavier Martinet, CEO of Hyundai Motor Europe, said during a recent interview that “The new electric vehicle will be unveiled in the next few months.”

Hyundai-Kia-lower-priced-EVs
Hyundai Casper Electric/ Inster EV models (Source: Hyundai)

The new EV is expected to be a compact SUV, which will likely resemble the upcoming Kia EV2. Kia will launch the EV2 in Europe and other global regions in 2026.

Hyundai is keeping most details under wraps, but the expected IONIQ 2 is likely to sit below the Kona Electric as a smaller city EV.

Hyundai-Kia-lower-priced-EVs
Kia Concept EV2 (Source: Kia)

More affordable electric cars are on the way

Although nothing is confirmed, it’s expected to be priced at around €30,000 ($35,000), or slightly less than the Kia EV3.

The Kia EV3 starts at €35,990 in Europe and £33,005 in the UK, or about $42,000. Through the first half of the year, Kia’s compact electric SUV is the UK’s most popular EV.

Hyundai-Kia-lower-priced-EVs
Kia EV3 (Source: Kia)

Like the Hyundai IONIQ models and Kia’s other electric vehicles, the EV3 is based on the E-GMP platform. It’s available with two battery packs: 58.3 kWh or 81.48 kWh, providing a WLTP range of up to 430 km (270 miles) and 599 km (375 miles), respectively.

Hyundai is expected to reveal the new EV at the IAA Mobility show in Munich in September. Meanwhile, Kia is working on a smaller electric car to sit below the EV2 that could start at under €25,000 ($30,000).

Hyundai-Kia-lower-priced-EVs
Kia unveils EV4 sedan and hatchback, PV5 electric van, and EV2 Concept at 2025 Kia EV Day (Source: Kia)

According to the report, Hyundai and Kia are doubling down on lower-priced EVs to balance potential losses from the new US auto tariffs.

Despite opening its new EV manufacturing plant in Georgia to boost local production, Hyundai is still expected to expand sales in other regions. An industry insider explained, “Considering the risk of US tariffs, Hyundai’s move to target the European market with small electric vehicles is a natural strategy.”

Hyundai-Kia-lower-priced-EVs
2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 (Source: Hyundai)

Although Hyundai is expanding in other markets, it remains a leading EV brand in the US. The IONIQ 5 remains a top-selling EV with over 19,000 units sold through June.

After delivering the first IONIQ 9 models in May, Hyundai reported that over 1,000 models had been sold through the end of June, its three-row electric SUV.

While the $7,500 EV tax credit is still here, Hyundai is offering generous savings with leases for the 2025 IONIQ 5 starting as low as $179 per month. The three-row IONIQ 9 starts at just $419 per month. And Hyundai is even throwing in a free ChargePoint Home Flex Level 2 charger if you buy or lease either model.

Unfortunately, we likely won’t see the entry-level EV2 or IONIQ 2 in the US. However, Kia is set to launch its first electric sedan, the EV4, in early 2026.

Ready to take advantage of the savings while they are still here? You can use our links below to find deals on Hyundai and Kia EV models in your area.

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